Tech group veering away from ICT roots

After selling its industry-leading online gaming subsidiary on Tuesday, tech conglomerate IPVG appeared to be slowly walking away from its ICT roots when it announced on Thursday that it is entering the mining refinery business.

IPVG chief Enrique Gonzales

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the company said its board of directors has amended the primary purpose in its articles of incorporation to allow the firm to establish a refinery in the Philippines to refine precious metals intended primarily for export.

In line with the company’s new business, the board also approved a P2.8-billion acquisition of a “foreign company” that has a large refinery base in China.

The acquisition cost will be paid in stocks amounting to 2.8 billion shares at P1.00 per share, the company said.

IPVG pulled a surprise on Feb. 14 when it revealed that it has agreed to sell its online gaming unit, e-Games, to main rival Level-Up Inc. for an undisclosed amount.

In March last year, IPVG sold 69 percent of its equity stake in its network securities subsidiary, Prolexic, for $13.86 million to international growth equity investment firm, Kennet Partners.

The tech group, however, still operates some ICT subsidiaries. Its publicly listed cloud computing-focused unit, IP-Converge, opened a multi-million data center late last year at the Bonifacio Global Center in Taguig City.

Newsbytes.ph is guided by this principle: If there’s an IT news that needs to be known by the public, we have the duty to report it — no matter what or who is involved. This is our contract with our readers. READ MORE

Subscribe

You can subscribe to Newsbytes.ph by e-mail to receive news and updates directly in your inbox for FREE. Simply enter your e-mail below and click Sign Up.